Trump said under the Iran nuclear deal, "we give them $150 billion, we get nothing."

Trump is referring to the amount of previously frozen Iranian assets the deal releases. To be clear, this is money that already belongs to Iran so weíre not "giving" them anything. The $150 billion is a high estimate, and most experts say the real figure is closer to $100 billion, while Iran is probably only able to access a fraction of that.

In exchange for lifting the sanctions, the United States and its allies get to block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in the near future. One can argue whether we got enough, but we didnít get "nothing."

TRUMP: ďThe Iran deal is a terrible deal. We paid $150 billion. We gave $1.8 billion in cash. Thatís actual cash, barrels of cash. Itís insane. Itís ridiculous. It should have never been made. But we will be talking about it.Ē

{ snip }

THE FACTS: There was no $150 billion payout from the U.S. treasury. The money he refers to represents Iranian assets held abroad that were frozen until the deal was reached and Tehran was allowed to access its funds.

The payout of about $1.8 billion is a separate matter. That dates to the 1970s, when Iran paid the U.S. $400 million for military equipment that was never delivered because the government was overthrown and diplomatic relations ruptured.

TRUMP, boasting about how he would have conducted talks with Iran over reducing its nuclear weapons capabilities: ďI would have said sorry, we canít give you the $150 billion back. We want to give you the money back, but we donít have it. Itís not there.Ē

THE FACTS: The Iranians immediately would have called Trumpís bluff. Thatís because the U.S. never had $150 billion to give back in the first place.

Iran had foreign assets spread across numerous banks and countries before it struck a deal with the U.S. and other countries to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. The sanctions meant Tehran couldnít access these funds abroad. But Iranís government knew very well where its money was.

Much of the revenue came from Iranís oil sales to China, India, Japan and South Korea. These countries were able to purchase Iranian petroleum before the July 2015 nuclear agreement, but U.S. financial restrictions made it all but impossible to facilitate payments. So the money mainly sat in escrow in those countries, instead. These were not funds within the grasp of a U.S. president.